Highlife Decoded: How to Drink Better Sake, Without Getting Bombed

Sake has been jostling for mainstream acceptance in the States for well over a decade. Like tequila, it often suffers from the association that drinkers have with their unfortunate college antics—sake bombs and saketinis may have helped many people become aware of the beverage, but they don’t exactly inspire people to dig deeper into the genre.

Still, sake enthusiasts have continued to chip away at misconceptions, pushing people to think about it outside the context of all-you-can-eat sushi joints. In Japan, sake is consumed with the same reverence and appreciation for nuance that one would bring to wine or craft beer. It has layers, regions, textures, preferred temperatures, and pairs well with food other than raw fish and rice.

It’s time to go beyond the bastardized rice wine and table games. Let’s break it down.

The Expert: Chris Johnson is the head sommelier at Chelsea Asian-fusion restaurant Cherry in the Dream Downtown Hotel, New York. Johnson may have lived in Japan for three years and serve as the head judge (for the last 13 years) of the U.S. National Sake Appraisal tasting competition, but he started from bottom, too—he admits his first taste of the stuff was in the form of a sake bomb.

“When I first found out I was moving to Japan to teach English, my best friend since I was a kid wanted to take me out for sushi and sake, because that is what I’d be eating every day,” says Johnson. “Obviously that was not the case, and thank goodness it wasn’t because it was from a mediocre sushi joint in my hometown.”

As soon as he returned to the U.S., Johnson jumped right into the growing sake culture in New York. “I’ve watched distribution grow from 50 varieties to more than 700 served today.”

He currently lives in Manhattan with 40 bottles of sake (and counting), and he preaches the motto, Sake will surprise you. “My job is to take the sake bomb drinker into being a sake drinker.”

Here, Johnson breaks down the fundamentals of sake—arm yourself with the knowledge, then get out there and start drinking.

First things first: Sake should not be “bombed."

We've all taken part in the college-outing charade: A shot of hot sake dropped into a glass of beer, then chugged quickly before you can taste the two drinks mixing. Or, if you’re an overachiever, you balance the cup between two chopsticks (this is the only time many users use them during the meal).
Johnson: (Rolls his eyes.) I mean I can’t be too mad because at least people are talking about sake, but that is not the way sake is meant to be enjoyed. It should be paired with food in the same fashion you would pair wine, and oftentimes it will pair better with non-Japanese dishes than some wines might.

Myth: Sake is rice wine.

Johnson says: We call it rice wine, because liquor stores and menus had to categorize it. Most sakes are clear and not sparkling, and they average at 16- to 18-percent alcohol by content, so we grouped it in the wine category. It is fermented from rice, but it’s more like beer than wine in the way that it is made. The four main ingredients are rice, water, yeast, and koji—a micro-organism that converts starch to sugar. The major thing that imparts flavor is the yeast.

Understanding sake and temperature.

Johnson says: The most important thing to stress is the distinction between warm and hot. There are 10 basic temperatures that sake is served at, with 131 degrees Fahrenheit being the hottest. However, most premium-level sakes are enjoyed at room temperature, slightly above room temperature, or chilled.
If you’re being served hot sake—one that is boiling when you get it—it is probably not good quality and they are masking its impurities with added heat.

But not all hot sake is bad sake.

Johnson says: Heating isn’t always a bad thing; it can bring out earthiness and create a fuller-bodied sake that pairs well with chicken or steak. One of my favorite things to do when a customer comes in to Cherry is to take the same bottle of a good sake and serve it at three different temperatures over the courses of their meal to highlight its differences. It totally freaks people out, and it’s awesome because you can’t do that with wine.
My personal preference is to serve sake slightly above body temperature (102 to 105 degrees), so you can feel that it’s warm and still bring out those richer qualities without masking its layers. Serving something near room temperature opens it up, and it shows different qualities than when it is chilled.

How to think about sake and aging.

Johnson says: You can have it for a month in your refrigerator and yes, it will change, but it will not change as drastically as wine. However, like every other beverage, it keeps best when kept in a stabile environment.
Most sake is aged for a six-month period before it’s shipped. There are some distilleries in western Japan that age their sake for a year and a half to two years before shipping. I have a sake that has been in my apartment for 10 years at room temperature and it’s developed woody notes like a sherry. As it ages more, you start to get nutty notes that might pair with game like pheasant and rabbit—things that were traditionally served with almonds and rice.
This doesn’t work with all sake though, and there is no rule of thumb because the process of aging is very new to the industry. Distilleries are just experimenting with it now as the major sake production industry is only 70 to 80 years old.

Sake is not always clear, and clarity doesn’t always correspond with quality.

Johnson says: Color has to do with aging. The longer it has been aged, the less clear and more yellow it becomes. Some distilleries use charcoal filtering—like the one in your Brita—to kill off bacteria. (Purists don’t like to do this because it strips some of the flavor.)
There are also two typical kinds of sparkling sake: One that has had carbon dioxide added to it, and others that use secondary fermentation, like the French do to make Champagne. Most of these have less than 10-percent of alcohol and tend to be sweeter.

Junmai is a pure rice sake.

Johnson says: This style is full-bodied and less aromatic. It does not have anything added to it. When you start getting to the less-premium sakes, they are often diluted with brewer’s alcohol (a basic grain spirit), which makes the sake lighter on the palate and more aromatic.
Distillers started doing this before World War II, when the rice supply in Japan was low and the government didn’t want to take away the drink of the people. Adding brewer’s alcohol allowed them to stretch the amount of alcohol using less rice.
Purists say you should only drink Jun Mai. However, most competition sakes have brewer’s alcohol added to them because it impacts the aromatics and—if someone is doing a taste test—it will give that sake an advantage over the purer ones. This kind of sake is harder to pair with sushi because the intense floral notes are overpowering.

Glossary

Sake distilleries are mainly in northern and southern Japan. In the north, where the water is cold from the mountains, the sake is crisper and cleaner. In the south, where it is warmer, the sake is generally more full-bodied.
Jun Mai: Pure rice sake, as opposed to many of the poor quality sakes (like the hot ones on the all-you-can-eat sushi menu) that blend in other additives. This is the entry point to super-premium sake. They tend to be earthier, more full-bodied, and less aromatic than ginjo sake.
Ginjo: The rice is polished between 60- and 50-percent (the number represents how much of the grain is remaining). The further you polish down the rice, the more fruity and floral notes it reveals.
Dai Ginjo: Literally meaning “big” ginjo, this is sake from rice that is polished until less than 50 percent of the grain is left (mostly commonly between 35 and 40 percent).
Johnson says: A more expensive sake is more expensive because the rice grains have been polished further down, so you are getting better sake that reveals more notes. It’s unlike wine in the way you can have an expensive bottle of wine and not taste the difference between the $12 bottle.

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